Pay Structure
The Council uses the nationally negotiated pay spine (i.e. a defined list of salary points) as the basis for its local pay structure, and originally incorporated at the top of the spine a further 17 salary points for senior posts within the Council, though not all these points were being used. The Council also adheres to the national pay bargaining arrangements in respect of increases to the national pay spine.
The Employers side of the NJC for Local Government Services made a final pay offer of 1.75% for all spinal column points within Chorley Council's pay spine, however, this has been rejected by the employee side Trade Unions and therefore negotiations will continue. Consequently, the pay spine will remain unchanged from 2020/21 as reported in last years' Pay Policy, until such time as any pay award is agreed.
The agreed National pay spine for 2020/21 is detailed at the end of this Policy and all salaries within the Pay Policy are those which were effective from 01 April 2020 and will remain unchanged until any nationally agreed pay award is agreed as detailed above.
Chorley Council has also made inactive for 2020/21, all the spinal column points which were implemented above the national pay spine, as these were no longer used and this continues to be the case.
This pay spine is used to determine the salaries of all Council employees apart from the Chief Executive, Directors and Service Leads which are addressed separately within this policy. All posts, apart from the Chief Executive, Directors and Service Leads, have been evaluated using the nationally agreed Job Evaluation Scheme, from which the current grading structure was established. The scheme takes into account the need to ensure value for money balanced with the requirement to recruit and retain employees who are able to meet the needs of the service.
The grading of the majority of the posts within Chorley Council was established following the culmination of the Single Status Job Evaluation process in October 2007. New posts and posts which changed significantly are evaluated in accordance with the same Single Status Job Evaluation Scheme.
The Council also has a process by which it could consider paying market supplements where there have been difficulties in recruiting to the post and there is a general industry shortage which has led to comparable posts within other Councils being considerably higher. All market supplements would have to be agreed with the Human Resources Services Manager and the relevant Director and are reviewed regularly.
There is currently four instances where the Council pays a market supplement, in order to secure the services of a Director of Finance, qualified Financial accountant, ICT Shared Service Lead and a Planning Coordinator, all posts of established high market demand.